The Saturday briefing: Knowledge is power

IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.

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The car was sold again for an undisclosed sum described as “well in excess of £100,000”.

It is now in a private collection but is said to be “available for limited public and commercial appearances”.

Q I have just obtained several of the new £1 coins. Why are they all dated 2016?Austin Winstanley, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

A In order to be ready for the launch of the new coin, the Royal Mint started making them last year.

Around half a billion coins were made bearing the 2016 date because that was when they were struck.

There have been several reports of coins dated 2016 being a mistake and suggestions that they are worth a lot of money.

Don’t be fooled by the rumours. While there were a few test coins made that are sure to become collectors’ items, the vast majority of 2016 coins are worth exactly what they say: one pound.

Q Looking through the Grand National runners my daughter asked why some of the names didn’t have spaces between the words.I remember years ago my uncle telling me that racehorses could not have more than 20 letters in their name. Is this correct?Christine Aldridge, Allestree, Derby

A Horses’ names have to be approved by the Jockey Club which has a large number of rules about it.

Quite apart from banning names that are seen as rude or commercially motivated, the current rules ban names that have more than 18 letters (including punctuation marks and spaces).

Grand National 2017: Fashion arrivals

Thu, April 6, 2017

Grand National at Aintree 2017 is here and hundreds of well-dressed racing fans have flocked to the racecourse in their Sunday finest.

So in this year’s Grand National Houblon Des Obeaux just hit the limit but Measureofmydreams would have been banned if it had included the spaces between the words.

My congratulations to your daughter for being observant enough to spot this.

Q Why do they keep moving the body of US President James K Polk?P Rhodes, Leeds

A Yes, poor old Polk seems to have had a hard time of it since he died in 1849. His first “final resting place” was in a mass grave in Nashville City Cemetery because he had died of cholera and such victims were put in mass graves to prevent spread of the disease.

After a year his body was moved to the grounds of his family mansion called Polk Place in accordance to the wishes expressed in his will. That land however was sold in 1893 and the bodies of Polk and his wife were dug up and reburied at the Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Polk's first 'final resting place' was in a mass grave in Nashville City Cemetery

Recently the Tennessee Senate has voted to move his body again to his old residence in Columbia, Tennessee, where the James K Polk Home and Museum is located.

That has been criticised by some who see it as a cynical measure to increase tourism.

Compared with Abraham Lincoln, Polk’s posthumous adventures have been few: his body has been moved 17 times.

Q Who was Joanna Southcott and what was her Box Of Prophecies?Peter Bond, March, Cambridgeshire

A Joanna Southcott was born in Devon in 1750 and claimed to be a religious prophetess and the Woman of the Apocalypse referred to in the Book Of Revelation.

Her fame was such that she is even referred to on the first page of Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities.

At the age of 64 she announced that she was pregnant and about to produce the new messiah but nothing happened.

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Joanna Southcott was born in Devon in 1750 and claimed to be a religious prophetess

She died soon after, leaving a Box Of Prophecies with instructions it should only be opened at a time of national crisis and only in the presence of all the bishops of the Church of England.

In 1927 a psychic researcher claimed to have found the box but it contained only unimportant papers and a few oddments including a lottery ticket and a horse pistol.

Others have claimed this was not the true Box Of Prophecies and that the real one will be opened only when the Church of England provides the bishops.

She predicted the world would end in 2004 so it may come too late.

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